Hi all, since I have gotten my front projection home theater working, I have only hit the movie theaters a couple of times, and the experience was rather underwhelming. Noisy crowds, lines, greasy popcorn, lame sound system, sticky floors, laser pointers, and the prices... damn. I guess I ignored all this before, since the whole movie experience was special. But now it just doesn't seem worth it. So I am wondering: do you go to the movies anymore? If so when, and why? Obviously film quality is far better than video, but is that enough for you?
James

I now only go to the movies for my kids(nine year old twins) and to get out with my wife. I agree with you the crowd stinks, the popcorn is greasy and overpriced, if you miss a word spoken oh well. The list goes on and on and on. I also like the sound/feeling of movies at home much better. At the theater the system isn't always calibrated correctly, but at home thats not a problem. You really can't feel the bass and be enveloped the same way as you can at home. Home theater kicks the *&^%$#@ out of the theaters.

Hardly ever... last time was for the kids, a month ago for Pokemon 2000. Get this, the theater is THX certified and they were showing the THX animation where the little guy is pumping the THX logo, and I think that there's a cow somewhere in there. I say think 'cause half of the bottom of the image was below the screen http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/frown.gif !! Finally, after the opening credit, and a few screams from the increasingly rowdy crowd, someone wakes up and lifts /adjusts the projector, obviously, from the weaving picture, by hand. I guess he found a better use for that book he was reading ! Sheesh...

Since the Home Theater is up and running, every Friday and Saturday night at 9:00 there is a movie on. All of our friends have an open invite for popcorn and a free movie and show up at will. Really have no disire to go out anymore.

I still go to the theater occasionally, but a lot less than I used to. And two times out of three I leave thinking, "Why do I keep coming here when it's so much more pleasant to watch movies at home?"

If the DVD is really well-done, the picture quality is about on par with the average theatrical picture around here. But on average the movie theater looks better. It's not the picture or sound that really sway me, though, but the crowd: cellphones going off, people commenting on the movie behind me, sold-out showings such that my group of friends can't all sit together, and so on. It also seems like the times of day when I most frequently want to see movies happen to fall smack in the middle of the dead zones when all the theaters are midway through all their movies.

In the past six months I think I've gone to the theater once for every 10 movies I've watched at home.

However, in defense of movie houses... when the experience is good, it's more fun than watching at home. Sometimes you get a good crowd that's quiet during the quiet parts, laughs at the funny parts, and isn't packed in tighter than a stadium full of sardines. When that happens it absolutely makes the experience more memorable and special, and while it's not the norm by any stretch, it happens just often enough to keep me going back.

Originally posted by Andy Ruiter:Since the Home Theater is up and running, every Friday and Saturday night at 9:00 there is a movie on. All of our friends have an open invite for popcorn and a free movie and show up at will. Really have no disire to go out anymore.

I'm THERE, Andy! Since my PJ is still down I'm going through withdrawl! Email me your address if you want some extra company on Friday or Saturday.

My wife and I have a three year-old and no family within a 3 hour drive. We both like the large (although rarely focussed properly) picture, but find the poor sound quality, noisy behavior of other patrons, and the terrible popcorn means that we don't "waste" a night out on a movie.

Haven't been to the local movie house, since I started building "The Royale".

My top 10 (11) reasons why a Home Cinema is better than the local theater.

1. No need to find a babysitter, you're already at home. You could even bring the baby too.
2. Show times are much more conveniently scheduled.
3. Easy to find a place to park the car.
4. Lines are much shorter.
5. Snacks are much cheaper at the snack bar, the lines are shorter, and the staff is knowlegable and helpful.
6. No annoying "sctick schtick schtick" as you walk though the rows.
7. You never get stuck in a bad set.
8. When "Nature Calls" the movie pauses so you don't miss a moment of the show.
9. Nobody kicks the back of your chair more than once.
10. The usher really will throw people out who talk talk talk talk talk through the movie.
11. Two words: Cool Factor.

Like Stacey, I still go to the cinema with some regularity. And any day we're not there, there is likely something spinning in our DVD players. For guys like us, its all about movies...any way we can get them!

I am in no way affiliated with any theater chain. Having said that, I think the difference is in the cinemas you folks have access to. This topic has been bounced around quite a bit but for me, the theaters up my way are just fine. Tickets aren't unreasonable, the sound is top drawer, and the picture is perfect thanks to the scrutiny of the projectionist. On one occasion I was invited to the 'loft' to check things out. While there, I saw him pick out a slight distortion on the bottom of a running movie that even I would have missed, which he promptly corrected.

For trivia, Tufte quotes the 35mm slide as having an *effective* resolution of 3000x2000. One could loosely extrapolate that film has over 17 times the resolution of DVD. Further, home theater should be so lucky as to have 20 foot tall screens, stage speakers with flat power response to below 40Hz, 27 band 1/3 octave eq on each channel, and subs capable of a clean 115dB... such is the staple of a cared for cinema. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

Video/DVD release is a lucrative market for studios but the *real* money comes from theater release. Ponder for a moment what exactly we watch on our marvelous home theaters? Movies made possible by the receipts from theater tickets! Without that income, I think I'd be scared to see the price of rentals. http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

Well, I'm fairly new to the whole home theater scene and am in the process of abandoning the theaters.
When I had just a 27" TV but what I believe to be a great sound system also, I'd still go to the theaters whenever there was a movie I felt needed that Big Screen Effect. To my ears, there was only one theater around me (out of 3-4 theaters w/in 35 minutes) that had comparable sound to what I was getting at home; but all had a superior picture. So, I drove the half hour to the theater with the best sound (there's another one 5 minutes from my house, but the sound is very poorly calibrated) and liked it that way!
Now that I've got a widescreen RPTV, I think I'm getting spoiled. I went to see "What Lies Beneath" a week or two ago (good movie BTW) and was ready to swear off theaters for life. The screen had a section near the middle that was refracting the light in a wierd way (lots of shiny multi-colored sparkles), the floors made the aforementioned "schtick, schtick" sounds, the other people there made worse sounds, and the speakers made popping sounds as the subs bottomed out. Now, this was no matinee and I dropped $20+ for these few hours of "enjoyment" with my girlfriend. I could wait a few months and own the DVD for the same money!
Honestly, next time a big movie comes out that I think will be really high quality, I'll probably forget all the bad and go to the theater again out of impatience alone... But I won't like it!!!

I'm sorry to say the last Great theater experience I gad was opening weekend of Contact. It was a great movie in a brand new stadium theater (calibrated correctly) and the audience was absolutely silent! No joke, it was a full house but not a cough or sneeze was to be heard. After the movie was over the credits came up "For Carl" and everyone walked out. Not a word was uttered during the exodus, it was eerily silent as if people were afraid to speak because they knew it would break the spell. That was a truly memorable experience. Unfortunately that theater has gone down hill severly. I saw The Art Of War this weekend and was extremely dissapointed, the volume was way too low and the crowd was extremely inconsiderate. Anyway, on whole I prefer to watch movies at home.

My parents and I had our own personal showing of THE SHOWER at Regal's Downtown West Art theater. I go to the theatres all the time, atleast 3 times a week. The main thing wrong with most theatres lately, are the films! A film about the Flintstones becomming crack addicts would be more entertaining than ROCK VEGAS, SUPERNOVA needs to disapear into a black hole, BATTLEFIELD EARTH is an epic flop, you can go to the theatres for years and not witness a flop of this magnitude! First of all these aliens are too stupid to get to earth, much less conquer it! So, it's like implausible, malo maximo! This film ranks with ROBOT MONSTER and PLAN 9 in my view. GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS should of had a running time of 60 seconds! THE PERFECT STORM is only slightly more entertaining than the weather channel. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 has great theame music and that's about it. Next, I think I'll go to GODZILLA 2000. If all I'm gona see is stupid movies, I might as well see one where a guy in a rubber suit trashs a toy town. Highly recommended is BUTTERFLY about the events leading to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's. THE CELL, I couldn't wait for it to end so I could leave the theatre, yuk! X-MEN is X-tra bad, enough said. There have been a few above-average films this summer out of Hollywood but just a few. Hollywood better quit foolin' around! What I expect though is more of the same, Mr. ED the movie, more BRADY BUNCH sequels, maybe ANY GIVEN MONDAY the sequel to I can't stand the noise during the football scenes, AGS! Dennis Miller can star in it! Theatres are great when you see the right film. Hollywood is shooting $100 million blanks way too often.... I hope the holiday season has some nice suprises, we deserve a few after this summer! Home theatre is a gas but, 24 fps can't be beat, yet! We're getting close though.....

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Rachael,la gata grande del disco

In real life I am Dot Mongur champion of the International Pacman Federation. I don't play the game, I operate it.....no dot is safe from me....

As a home theater junkie I am most motivated to go to a commercial cinema to compare the sights and sounds to my evolving home theater. When I had an LCD system, I was always impressed with the blacks and vivid colors of projected film. Since upgrading to a data grade CRT, I find the colors of my home theater comparable, the blacks better, and the light level in the brighter scenes a little inferior.

If you are a tweaker, its hard to be satisfied with the typical commercial image which is often not properly focused, filled with imperfections from worn film, or overlaping onto the curtains.

Still, I love seeing a blockbuster as soon as it is released (Space Cowboys was worth seeing at the theater).

But given the choice of seeing Hollow Man or staying home with North By Northwest or Braveheart, easy choice.

I love movies and if I want to see the latest releases, that means going to the theatre, which I do at least 2 or 3 times a month.
Fortunatly, there are several multiplexes which actually do a very good job of presenting a film in my area ( Long Island NY ). I have ,though, seen MANY POOR presentations at other theatres. It really ruins the mood when the movie is out of focus, or off center, or not centered, or in Mono , or with no surrounds, or way too low or way too loud, or when the lights don't go down when the movie starts. Not to mention having some jerk talking or throwing things, etc.
Naturally, this doesn't happen at home and I dearly love having all this technology at my fingertips. Isn't life in America Grand!!!

I occasionally go to the cinema, but it's really just a reviewing tool. Check out a movie at the cinema, then see it properly when I get it into my HT if I like it.

The last really great movie going experience I had was when my wife and I went to see the remake of " The Thomas Crown Affair" last year. We went early evening, the crowds were watching some action movie (can't remember which one but I presume some magazine or other had recommended it and slammed the Thomas Crown Affair) leaving us and one other couple in the cinema. It was like a giant HT with a focussed image (for a change) and decent sound with a cast of players obviously enjoying themselves on screen. We even got to see the credits all the way through without a cattle charge to the doors. We left the cinema with a smile on our faces which lasted a good few days. If only all cinema going experiences could be like this, I might start going more often. Till then, the Big Rig out back will show me all my favourite films, at my showing times, with my quality of sound with my friends. What more could you ask for?

A few years ago I said that when ticket prices reach $10 I'm staying home. Well prices in my neighborhood are about $7.75 now. That coupled with the fact that the last few movies I've seen SUCKED, I've decided that movies in theaters are a really bad value.

Two people go to the movies;
2 Tickets $15.50 +
2 Snack bar "Combos"(what a joke)$13.00 +
Parking and all the hassle
______________________________________
= $28.50 +

I can OWN the movie on DVD for less than $20 and watch it in the comfort of my own home with much better/cheaper snacks. And when I want to watch trailers, TiVo has a season pass to record "Coming Attractions" on ETV

I've never considered myself a movie buff, but I built a home theater anyway, primarily for the wow factor (and I had a large extra room). Since I built it about two years ago, we've probably watched 30 or 40 movies in the home theater, and gone to the cinema about 4 or 5 times.

To me, going to the theater is just another thing to do for entertainment, but sometimes it ends up being more hassle than it's worth.. Watching a movie in my home is always enjoyable and is something we often do on the spur of the moment. It's always comfortable and there's always something playing that I want to watch. All in all, movies aren't a big part of my life, but my home theater is a luxury I hope I'll never be without again.

Shh, don't tell the hollywood execs this, but the answer is a definite NO! I used to go to the movies weekly. Now that I have my HTPC and HD-ready RPTV, I think we only go to the cinema when there's something EXCEPTIONALLY worthwhile there, which is probably once every 4 months or so.

Additionally, getting a cablemodem has drastically reduced the hours that we spend watching TV and movies. DVDs are starting to pile ontop of the HTPC ;-)

The presentations at commercial theaters (even top drawer theaters) are spotty at best (look who they have running the joints: minimum wage teenagers who don't give a rat's a**). I have IMHO a pretty nice audio setup (I REALLY need to work on the TV part of it!) that rivals most movies theaters in terms of fidelity and soundstaging... and I always know I'm going to get DTS or Dolby Digital sound and a pretty decent picture.

Dan

P.S. The theater chains aren't going to be plunking down more money to have "perfect" presentations since most of them are scrambling to stay one step ahead of Chapter 11.